Visualizing the Future
by DoctorATAT
Summary: ... an attempt to describe a possible future, if my estimates of the realities of technology, innovation, and the zeitgeist are probable ... as an aside, some parts of the story have already been made highly unlikely ... just not the ones you might guess.


The birds are chirping,  
>why are they twittering,<br>what are they saying…

no more time to wax poetic,  
>it is time to wake up,<br>and get to the office.

I open my eyes and take in the time on my alarm clock.

"Damn… I should either try living in another time zone or go to bed earlier.", I thought.

After making myself ready for the day, I arrive at the office.

"Morning boss." I hear as I enter my office.

"Morning, what's on the agenda today?", I said, while getting my Emotiv placed properly on my head, "I'm hooked in, run the calibration."

"I noticed, boss, ready… Happy, Sad, Shocked, Confused, Push, Pull, Focus…running 5×5. Your real time feeds are mostly nacient right now(on the right), I will pull up your delayed feeds on the left, and your To-Do and To-Watch on the front."

My walls to my left, right and front changes from the slide show pictures to clusters of subscribed blogs, Live feeds(e-mail, FB, twitter, etc.), uTorrent feeds, .tv (set it to speach2text), & iRC.

"Any friends live now?" I asked, and the walls start splotching with colored highlights, and an index chart showing the most and least active friends opens on the front wall.

As none of my live friends were talking to (or about ) nor where their topics of interest to me, after dropping a couple of specific friends on the Text2Speach area, I Push the list, and the highlighting goes with it.

I point to the audio play button and Pull it to start my background music, symphonies by Haydn. "Ok, time work on the async, while I am not needed live, what is on the hot plate?"

My thesis pops up in front wall, so I get to work…

While writing a new paragraph, I hear a friend asking a question, that I can answer, so I change my focus to that conversation thread and say "Respond as DoctorATAT…Close, as VGA signals are considered "True Component" and Y/Pb/Pr is a "Color Difference Component" signal and the two signal types are not compatible with each other, though some systems support both, which is probably why it worked on your projector but not your flat panel…Send"

I turn back to my paragraph and start writing, for a few minutes before the voices again are asking for clarification upon other subjects. I decide it's time to go live, so I Push the thesis, check the previsualization of you video out feeds, and I go live.

After a few seconds, my VAT (video/audio/text), starts showing up all over the internet, and the requests start flowing in. I answer the quick question first, and progress to the longer questions, eventually getting to the badly worded questions.

I have a trick to handle the badly worded questions, using the sales/psychological technique of DTR (Distract-Then-Reframe) , I tell them exactly what they asked in the most convoluted yet terse way, and then offer an alternative thought about the question itself. This usually causes them to either rethink their question or lose control…either way, it is much more time efficient than spending 10 minutes per stupid question.

Some of my friends notice that I am live, and I am now getting their live feeds…

Mom: Work Helping companies understand non-profit legal loopholes

Dad: Work Verifying insurance policies and public accounts for Texas, and neighboring states

AltexUSA: 281 Work seems slow, but Nick asked me a question, and left me live on the big screen

Erik: TWIT Erik's getting ready to start Tech TalkBack (so it must be Thursday…quick check, yup)

Donna: School She's in class, so I'm getting her VidOut, but she has me on V&A2TS10min (Video & audio to text, summarized every 10 minutes), I think to myself how happy I am that her school has embraced the idea of live personal time, as where you are should not detract from communications from those important to you.

President: Work Getting the feed from the White House lawn, so he must be having a private conversation…

Bill: Office Looks like he's working at the office like myself, helping people save themselves, I'm glad he redirected his interests away from Microsoft…

Earth, TX: VirtualUS The place has blossomed over the years that the #VirtualUS took up Real-world residence in that small town, I hardly recognize it, but new #Citizens (1 think we are finally in the laggard phase, finally) are showing up steadily in all of our locations…

"Humm, where's Leo", I wonder, and I look around my walls, he was just on .tv , so I Push the question to iRC while reviewing the TWiT feed.

On my private ticker box I receive a message, "You have a guest wishing to remain private arriving at the front, and requesting entrance, I have informed them that it will take a minimum of about 3 minutes for you to disengage live communications."

I tell everyone AFVS&TO (away from video, sound, and text out) and set the system to V2E (video to emoticon). "Let them in" I say.

A few minutes later, I am face to face with the 1st President of the #VirtualUS, he has held the post for more time than any of the others that came afterwards… humans change their minds about as slow as the moon recedes from the earth, even in the fast paced turnover of the #VirtualGovernment.

He asked me not to talk about our conversation, but I could feel free to mention that he was there, the usual drill for statesmanship business.

That always stuck in my crawl, as I always thought that the business of the #VirtualUS should always be public, but sometimes people have a hard time changing gears. He was a politician for the #RealUS for a long time, before running for #VirtualOffice and getting the 1st post of #VirtualPres back on #06Dec2010… what a day that was.

With the #VirtualPres gone, I got some refreshments and went back to work on my thesis, while keeping the system on Eout (emoticon out). I always thought my avatars looked funny when trying to separate chewing from smiling.

One of my contacts starts lighting up, coming to the foreground, with the message… "We need to VAT (Video, audio, text)."

I check over myself in the previz shot, and approve the connection.

Leo: TWiTCottage "I heard the #VirtualPres was hushed your place, and I know how you feel about #Virtual matters not being shared with the #VirtualPublic, do you want to comment?"

"Am I on the record…never mind it's a silly question to ask you, 'hi, chat room'. OK, Leo, you want the scoop, here it is…The #VirtualPres was discussing with me how we could start into the next stage of the #VirtualUS plan." I podcast.

"What do you mean, the next stage, the #VirtualUS is the majority government across the entire world, all governments have their own local versions, what is there to do now?" asked Leo, & seconded by a few in the chat room, including Acedtect .

"Leo, as the Admiral of the TWiTNavy, you know that our following was the catalyst for the change to the #VirtualUS, but that change was just the start. The next goal is to start pruning the governments of their dead wood laws, now that we can check each law for logical completeness, those that fail will be either reworked of removed, that is what the #VirtualPres wanted to ask about, how I saw it unfolding."

"And how do you see it unfolding?" questioned Leo #VirtualL01CA (#VirtualUS Legislator #01 for the State of California)

"Do you want me to ruin the surprise?" I query.

"Maybe, anything dangerous to the people #Real or #Virtual?" he said.

"No, unless that person was a life long politician and can not change with the times, and then it will be a forced career change.", I then smiled.

"OK, we will talk later, now let's cut back to Tech TalkBack, with Erik", the feed border changed colors, so I knew Leo went hushed. "Now, it that really what's going on?" Leo asked.

"How well do you know me, Leo?" I retorted.

"OK, just wanted to make sure, most people are full of it, but I know you are a straight shooter, so have a good night, I have to get back to the #VirtualUSCongress anyway, later." said Leo, as he hurriedly signed off.

"Poor Leo."  
>"He never wanted to be in politics, you forced him in"<br>"I know, but I didn't want to be in politics either, even though the Navy showed me my levels social altruism, besides Leo can now help the world change for the better"  
>"You should have never thought up the idea…"<br>"Well, shit happens, and someone will eventually get up and say, 'I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore', I just happened to be the person who heard the calls and devised a plan."  
>"It was imperfect"<br>"It was the start we needed, 'Oculi plus vident quam oculus'" said SawyerIII1776  
>"Yea, yea, 'Several eyes see more than one', I know, I guess I just feel sorry that he never had a choice, he was the first chosen by #WeThePeople back when Twitter was the only voting method."<br>"That's why you are #Real and we are #Virtual", said DoctorATAT  
>"Yes, but thanks to the #VirtualUS we are both #Real&amp;Virtual too", I said.<p>

After snapping out of my reverie, I look at the time, and realize that the work day is over, so I go private, and walk to the bedroom for a nap, between shifts.

"G'night Boss", says the household computer (BLISSystem), before I fall completely asleep.

I love working from home, in the future.

-SawyerIII asstd (10 Oct 2010)


End file.
